This invention relates to poultry feed systems in which feed is conveyed to a series of feeding stations where it is dispensed for chickens (or other livestock) to eat and, more particularly, to a poultry feeder located at each of the feeding stations which allows young chicks to readily see and to have access to the feed in the feeder, and which is adjustable to retain feed in the feeder and to better accommodate larger birds as the birds mature.
Poultry feedings systems are well-known in the art. Examples of such feeding systems and feeders used in them are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,007,380; 4,476,811; 4,003,339; 3,971,340; 3,598,087; 3,415,228; 3,230,933; and 3,033,163. As shown in these various patents, feed from a bulk feed tank located outside of the poultry house is discharged into a hopper or similar intake receptacle. From there, the feed is conveyed through a conveyor tube to a sequence of spaced feed stations. From the conveyor, feed is deposited into a feed pan at each feed station. In the past, feeders were designed for use by older birds which had grown tall enough to see into and to reach the feed in the feed pan at the bottom of the feeder.
It was recognized that young chicks could not see the feed in the feed pan and that the small chicks could not access the feed because the feed pan was often too high. Consequently, upon the introduction of chicks in a poultry house, feed was often simply deposited in piles on the floor of the house (or on a strip of paper laid on the floor) intermediate each of the feeding stations. This allowed the young chicks to see and to eat the feed in the piles, but resulted in substantial spoilage and waste of feed.
In the past, the feed conveyor tube was provided with openings intermediate the feeding stations which, prior to introduction of chicks into the house, could opened to deposit piles of feed between the feeding stations. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,509, shallow feed pans were sometimes used to contain the loose feed and to provide the chicks access to the feed. Such shallow feed pans required substantial labor to install in the house prior to introduction of the chicks and still resulted in a substantial waste of feed.
Feeders were developed which could be used by both young and more mature chicks. Such feeders are shown in the above-noted U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,476,811 and 5,007,380 which incorporated special windows in their feed drop tubes which could be used to flood the feed pan with feed to insure access by the small chicks. While these feeders solved some of the problems, others still remained. One problem, for example, involved spoilage of the feed. Excess feed deposited in the drop tube and in the pan may become stale or off taste to the birds. This may result in the birds not eating as they should with a consequent slower growth rate or a lower conversion of feed into marketable poultry protein. This can lead to waste of the feed and spoilage of the feed.
A second problem involved adjusting the height of the pan so it is accessible by all of the chicks. Pans located at low spots or areas of the poultry house floor will be too high for young chicks to see or to reach into the feed pan. In practice, with a poultry house having a length of about 300 feet or so, it has been found necessary to maintain the level of the litter on the floor relative to the level of the feed line supported overhead to be within a close limit (e.g., 1-2 inches) so as to insure that all of the prior art flood window feeders would properly flood when the feed line was lowered toward the floor. In addition, if variations in floor level relative to the level of the feed line were present, variations as small as 1.5 inches could cause some of the feeders of the line to be properly adjusted for the height of the birds while others of the feeders would be too high for the birds to see the feed in the feeders. This could cause the birds to not feed at the feeders which were too high and to congregate at the other feeders such that too many birds would try to eat from one feeder. This could result in stress and in that birds may not obtain adequate feed rations and some birds may not grow at the desired rates. Also, the feed in the feeders that were too high might be wasted.
Third, the feeders were supported (suspended) from the conveyor tube and the latter was typically suspended from the roof of the poultry house by means of cables and winches such that the entire conveyor along with all of the feed pans may be raised and lowered, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,033,163. While the height of the conveyor above the floor may be relatively uniform, variations in height still occurred. In feeders such as those described in the noted prior patents, height adjustment of the feeder relative to the floor is non-existent, or limited. Upon lowering the feeders toward the floor, one of the feeders may contact the floor or the litter prior to the others (due to a high spot of the litter on the floor). This may place undue weight on this one feeder.
It has also been a problem with prior art poultry feeders, particularly with prior art feeders that use so-called xe2x80x9cfloodxe2x80x9d windows to provide excess feed within the feeder when baby chicks are first placed in the poultry house so as to insure that the chicks are able to visually see the feed in the feeder, that such feeder have large quantifies of feed (e.g., several pounds of feed) which is not consumed by the young chicks, which may become fouled by droppings, and which may go stale. About 10 days into the growing cycle, it is conventional to close these flood windows and to allow feed to flow into the feeder in the conventional way. However, the fouled and stale feed that remains in the feeder causes problems. It will be noted that such stale and fouled feed may contaminate the new feed delivered to the feeder or the birds may have to consume the fouled or stale feed prior to having access to new, fresh feed delivered to the feeder. It has been found that in many poultry operations, the chicks undergo a stall in their growth rate at about the time the flood windows are closed. Similarly, if the chicks were introduced to feed through the use of piles of feed deposited on the floor of the poultry house (as discussed above), at about 10 days into the growing cycle, the birds must be convened from eating from these piles of now stale and fouled feed to feed delivered to the feeder, there has been noted a similar stall in the growth rate of the birds. Such stalls in the growth rate means either that the growing period for the flock must be extended a few more days, or if the birds are marketed at the end of the normal growth period, the liveweight of the birds may be less than desired.
Many of these problems were solved by the poultry feeder shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,187, which is incorporated herein by reference. The feeder shown in that patent works extremely well. However, it could still be improved upon. For example, it is desirable to have more feed in the pan when the chicks are young, and less feed in the pan when the birds are older and more mature. Reducing the feed in the pan as the birds become older reduces the amount of feed that is scratched or pecked out of the feeder, and consequently reduces spoilage of the food. Conversely, having more food available when the birds are young, makes the food more readily visible and available to the chicks. As is known, the level of the food in the pan is a function of the distance of a feed level controller from the bottom of the pan. The farther the controller is from the pan bottom, the more feed will be deposited in the pan. The feeder described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,187 allows for manual adjustment of the feed level control. However, it can be appreciated that it would take a considerable amount of time to adjust the fed controls on all the feeders in a poultry house. It would be desirable to automate the feed level controller, so that as the feeder is adjusted to feed maturing birds, the position of the controller will automatically adjust to reduce the amount of feed in the pan.
A poultry feeder of the present invention is one which can be used throughout the growth of a chicken, or other bird. Thus, the feeder can be used with chicks, as well as with mature birds. The feeder is provided with a mechanism which will automatically adjust the size of the opening from the feeder""s drop tube to the feeders pan, so that the feeder will be flooded with feed, so that sufficient feed will be available for small chicks, and to reduce the amount of feed in the pan, to prevent flooding of the feed pan for adult birds.
The feeder includes the feed pan into which feed is deposited, a drop tube in communication with a source of feed for delivering feed to the feed pan; a feed level controller slidable on the drop tube for controlling the level of feed in the pan, and an adjustment mechanism for positioning the feed level controller relative to the drop tube and the feed pan so that the pan will be flooded with the feeder is set up for chicks and will reduce the amount of feed in the pan when the feeder is adjusted to feed mature birds.
The drop tube is movable axially relative to the feed pan between a raised position and a lowered position. It includes a body having an inlet and an outlet. The space between the drop tube outlet and the feed pan defines a feeder opening through which feed flows into the feed pan.
The feed level controller includes a body movable on the drop tube body so as to be moveable axially relative to the drop tube body. As the controller is lowered relative to the drop tube body, to be closer to the feed pan, the size of the feeder opening is reduced, and, concomitantly, the amount of feed which may enter the pan is reduced.
To automatically control the position of the feed level controller relative to the feed pan (and hence to automatically control the size of the feeder opening) the drop tube is provided with a plurality of drop tube support members (fins) pivotally mounted to the drop tube body and extending from the body outlet. The support members (fins) are disposed between the feed pan and the lower edge of the drop tube body, and are sized to be in contact with the feed pan at least when the drop tube is in the lowered position. Each of the support members has a curved lower surface which bears on the feed pan cone and which serves as a curvilinear cam surface. The support members are movable between a spread-apart position when the drop tube is in its lowered position wherein the support members extend outwardly of the drop tube body; and collapsed position when the drop tube is in its raised position wherein the support members are substantially contained within an area defined by the diameter of the drop tube body.
The bottom edge of the feed level controller body rides on the upper edge of the support members. Thus, when the drop tube is in its lowered and the support members are in their spread-apart position, the feed level controller sits on the support member (fin) upper edges and is spaced from the feed pan to define a large feeder opening. The curvilinear shape of the support members varies the distance the lower end of the drop tube is supported with respect to the feed pan, depending on the position of the support members. Thus, when the drop tube is in its raised position and the support members are in their collapsed position; the feed controller is closer to the feed pan to reduce the size of the feeder opening to restrict the amount of feed which is deposited in the feed pan. As the drop tube is raised to adjust the feeder to accommodate older and larger birds, the support members will be pulled inwardly towards their collapsed position, and the feed level controller will be lowered to be closer to the feed pan, thereby reducing the size of the feeder opening. Therefore, the feeder opening size will be automatically reduced to reduce the amount of feed in the feed pan. This substantially eliminates the need for manual setting of the feeders to alter the amount of feed which is deposited in the feed pans as the birds grow.